ATP Challenger Tennis: Devvarman exits, Indian campaign ends

The Indian challenge ended at the USD 50,000 State Bank of India ATP Challenger Tour here Friday, with Somdev Devvarman falling by the wayside in the semi-final to third-seeded Evgeny Donskoy.

Somdev began with a bang, taking the opening set, but then lost the momentum to eventually go down 6-3, 5-7 and 2-6 against the Russian, who would take on unseeded Serbian Ilija Bozoljac in Saturday's final.

Bozoliac showed the door to tournament top seed Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan 3-6, 7-5 and 6-2 on the synthetic courts of the Bengal Tennis Association Complex.

Devvarman won the opening set with ease, with a break of serve in the second game. The next set witnessed lots of service breaks by both the players. Down 5-6, Devvarman dropped serve at a crucial stage to lose the set, as the match was tied 1-1.

In the decider, trailing 1-2, Devvarman seemed tentative on serve, as he started the game dropping two consecutive points, and allowed the Russian to walk away with a crucial break.

The next three games went with serves, but Devvarman surrendered his serve again in the eighth game to concede the game, set and match.

However, the Indian had something to cheer. The country's top singles player was awarded a special prize of Rs.100,000 by the Bengal Tennis Association for his outstanding performances in recent weeks, when he climbed up the ranking ladder to become world No 100.

The duo of Saketh Myneni and Sanam Singh wins the doubles title, as they overcame the challenge of compatriots Vishnu Vardhan and Divij Sharan, by a close 6-3,3-6,10-4.